


Fearsome Three

by aceofhearts88



Series: Howling at the Stars [16]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: In a way, dragons conquer dorne, pets and their adventures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 08:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12477300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofhearts88/pseuds/aceofhearts88
Summary: Balerion, Meraxes and Vhagar. The three legendary dragons of Aegon the Conquerer and his sister-wives Rhaenys and Visenya.Balerion, Meraxes and Vhagar. A vicious menace, a foreign beauty and a jumping means of chaos.A short tale about a cat, a lizard and a puppy.





	Fearsome Three

**Author's Note:**

> just a short little fun piece before the next mini-fic starts

Balerion, Meraxes and Vhagar were the first dragons the Westerosi people got to see flying over their homes. Magnificent dangerous beasts who helped their riders conquer what would later become six of the Seven Kingdoms.

The dragons were long dead but their legacy lived on

\--

Three centuries ago King Torrhen Stark knelt at the shores of the Trident, surrendering the Northern Kingdom to Aegon Targaryen to spare his people the death, destruction and despair that three dragons could have brought to them. Balerion alone could have decimated the North in mere days, killing hundred thousand and more. 

In present time Torrhen Stark's namesake and descendant was commanding Balerion to “crush the armies” and though the Black Dread's own namesake looked mighty confused he still let himself be guided through the wooden soldiers who all fell over.

Ashara bit her lips and still couldn't stop the pearls of laughter that bubbled up and spilled out, her son was blissfully unaware, cheering and clapping, tumbling into the grass and petting the big black cat that dropped down next to him. 

Aegon and Balerion had kept whole kingdoms fearing fire and blood and the power of the Valyrian invasion. People had shaken in fright and ducked away in fear while he had flown overheard on the dragon who was said to have been bigger than any other who had ever lived, or at least that was how the stories went. 

This Balerion here was certainly the biggest cat Ashara had ever seen in her life, gone was the small kitten that had loved Rhaenys so much, who had been loved in turn by her, whose favourite plaything had been Arthur's white cloak much to her brother's chagrin. Balerion was grown into a vicious little pest who was wild and had learned to fend for himself in the years he had spent alone in the Red Keep until Benjen had brought him back home to Dorne.

It was not surprising then that the two people Balerion let close were Oberyn and her own little wild boy. Torrhen had quickly taken to the cat, who had one morning just sat on his bed and then refused to leave his side for the next hours, could often be soon now chasing birds, driving his uncles crazy or pretending that a fierce black dragon was conquering armies in Dornish deserts.

Ashara hadn't had the heart yet to remind him that Balerion had never been to Dorne.

That after all had been another dragon.

Three centuries ago Rhaenys Targaryen had tried to subdue Dorne on back of her dragon, pretty silver scaled Meraxes, a conquest that had cost them both their lives. As legend had it not far from where the Water Gardens had later been built. Meraxes had been said to be as gentle and beautiful as her rider, Aegon's younger sister, his favourite, his great love.

Elia had often asked her daughter why she hadn't named her kitten after the dragon that had belonged to her namesake, Rhaenys had simply stated that her kitten was “big and mean, not pretty”, Arthur had certainly agreed.

The dragon's namesake was as quiet, gentle and as far as Jon was concerned as pretty as the long dead dragon. Meraxes followed Jon almost wherever he went, just not into the pools of course and she also preferred to stay out of the wild games the boys could start with the other children. The only other person she deemed interesting to frequent with her presence was Arthur who could sometimes be seen with a lizard wrapped around his leg when he laid outside in the sun and watched the children. The rest was tolerated but never intentionally sought out.

Didn't mean though that Jon didn't like to set his 'dragon' onto poor wooden figurines as well and Meraxes even seemed to understand the intended play much better than Balerion did, or she was just more willing to indulge her master. Swishing her tail over the wooden soldiers until they were all toppled over and Jon was screaming with laughter and praise for her. Only for him to rush over to the figurines in the next moment to see if they were harmed in any way, Torrhen didn't care a bit over the state of the armies he had just 'destroyed'.

She was glad he was not in the running for any thrones in his future.

Neither was his dreaming little sister.

Three centuries ago the people of Westeros called the silver haired Valyrian Dragonrider who crowned himself King Aegon the Conqueror, but all of them knew that it was his older sister who truly was the Warrior. It was Visenya who was the true Conqueror, the one born to fight battles and rule while her sister charmed the people from highborn to smallfolk and her brother was the one the people wondered about for his silence and his lonesome life.

And if the stories were true then the dragon who had bonded with her was all her in scales and firebreath. Vhagar was ferocious, unforgiving and headed only her rider's command, was known to disobey even Visenya when the mood stroke just right. Vhagar outlived Balerion and Meraxes by a mile, just like Visenya did with her siblings.

Was the old Warrior Queen turning in the afterlife now where she could see what another descendant of Valyrian blood had given the name of this dangerous ruthless dragon to?

A puppy.

A stroppy little brown thing that had – according to her daughter – been found half-dead in a corner in the harbor market and she had in her despair over seeing an animal in such despair turned to her older brother, fully well knowing that Torrhen would not be able to not help. How Andric and Benjen had been wrapped into the plot to keep the dog out of sight of Ashara until Rhaena was positively attached to it was a puzzle Ashara had yet to solve.

Fact was that her daughter had later presented her with a round eyed puppy, tongue lolling out, looking so adorable and stupid that Ashara hadn't been able to say no. The day after the puppy had mauled her daughter's second favourite doll and Rhaena had immediately named him Vhagar, no tears over the lost toy at all, only hugs for the beast who slobbered her neck.

Andric and Oberyn hadn't stopped laughing for an hour it felt like, Rhaena had just looked mighty proud. Her little dreaming beauty.

“And so the dragons conquered Dorne.” Oberyn told her one afternoon, sitting next to her on the sunbed, sun bearing down on them while they watched the children play around the pools. Ashara had thrown a look over to her brother, every mention of three-headed dragons and those three siblings sent Arthur into a brooding mess of a mood and she liked to avoid repeating it. Arthur though was fairly occupied in that moment, a lizard curled around his entire left leg, nose stuck in a letter.

“How come?” Ashara turned her attention back to Oberyn who smirked, nudging his head over to Torrhen who was leading a sneak attack on an unaware Daemon Sand and Gerold Dayne, of High Hermitage, whose attention were a wry bit too much on Princess Arianne curling strands of hair around her fingers and Nymeria glaring daggers on them. Up on a branch of a lemon tree, Balerion was perched for a pouncing attack. 

“There you have Balerion, ready to jump into the charge to defend the Dornish beauties from foreign invaders.” Oberyn explained and leaned back into the pillows, Ashara snorted.  
“Daemon is your squire and Gerold might be a little jerk but he's still Dornish.” She argued and caught Nym's eyes across the distance, letting her eyes show that she was unto them, Nym only grinned.

“I repeat, invaders.” Oberyn hummed before pointing over to where Allyria was sitting in the grass, Benjen snoring away with his head on her outstretched legs. Allyria's skirts were buried under flowers that Elia and Rhaena had picked earlier under Sarella's and Tyene's guidance, and Allyria and Tyene were showing Elia and Sarella now how to turn them into flower crowns. Rhaena was giggling wildly while she was tugging on one end of a stick, Vhagar hanging onto the other, they were both in great risk in tumbling onto Benjen.

“And there you have Vhagar, needing to be entertained at all times so she doesn't cause any more destruction.” Oberyn's explanation went on, he had lost a belt to Vhagar's boredom. “If Rhaena wasn't so sweet and kind, I would be fearing for the whole Water Gardens already. Just imagine if Balerion and Vhagar decide to unite their viciousness, Torrhen would take over Sunspear in a day.” Oberyn exaggerated happily, “And Rhaena would come afterwards, sweet talk and puppy-eye the whole destruction away.”

Just like his own daughters, Rhaena had easily wrapped Oberyn around every little finger, just like she had with all of her uncles. If her daughter grew a sense for how easily she could manipulate those around her, Ashara would never have to worry about her future as a female bastard in Westeros.

“And then Meraxes, pretty harmless Meraxes who is just fooling us all into believing she cannot do anything disastrous.” Oberyn concluded, eyes set on the green lizard who stuck out against Arthur's white pants, “Her namesake might have been slain by the Dornish but this one already took out our best warrior.” He argued, prompting Ashara to laugh and smile at her older brother who was completely unaware to their assumptions.

“Well, thankfully, we only have one dragon here and he is way too sweet to conquer anyone.” Ashara reminded him, both of them turning to look over to where Jon was swimming dizzying circles around Andric and Edric in the pool, diving down when Andric made to grab for him, too.  
“Give him some time, that mind is sharp and quick, that boy could have everything he wanted.” Oberyn told her and Ashara's smile turned on him. “I know, I know, don't say anything to Arthur unless I wan't get too close for comfort with Dawn again. I'm just making observations. The kid is wickedly smart, if he does later on decide to make for the throne and his birthright then that is something good to have.”

“A king grown up normal and happy. We're only missing the dragon then.”

Oberyn laughed to her words and then laughed even louder when Torrhen made his attack and Gerold Dayne went down under the five boys half his age who tackled him to the ground, Daemon Sand shrieked when Balerion jumped onto his head, stumbling away once he had the cat off of himself. Balerion landed gracefully right next to Torrhen, fully ignoring the struggle still going on behind them, the cat began to lick his paw in full content while Torrhen held out two flowers to a clearly surprised Arianne and Nymeria.

“Yeah, let's be happy we are missing the actual dragons.” Oberyn decided and then yelped himself when he was suddenly assaulted by brown fur, spluttering to get Vhagar away from himself. Ashara snorted and stood up before the puppy decided she could be slobbered on as well, she went over to her sister who had already been now joined by their good-sister and Ellaria in helping the girls with the flower crowns.

\--

Balerion, Meraxes and Vhagar might not be dragons, but in all else they were just like their namesakes, and the Water Gardens were only the first place they conquered.


End file.
